Barbara King

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Barbara King is the Queen

It was an evening I will never forget. About ten years ago, I was hosting a dinner for some of my employees at McLoone’s Riverside Dining in Sea Bright, otherwise known as The Rum Runner. It was a beautiful evening by the Shrewsbury River, and our party was laughing and joking and generally enjoying each other’s company. A white lady was playing at the piano bar over in the corner near the kitchen, but we were too engrossed in our festivities to pay much attention. We enjoyed a couple of drinks, and then our appetizers. We were sitting there waiting for our main course to arrive, and then it happened.

That white lady at the piano started playing a Stevie Wonder song. Oh, no she didn’t! Yes, she did. She not only played the song, she played it perfectly. I couldn’t believe my ears! I had visited a hundred piano bars in a hundred places all over the world, and I knew that it was rare to hear a Stevie Wonder song played so well. Why? Stevie songs are so soulful. He writes his songs in unusual keys with strange key changes right in the middle. His melodies and rhythms can be rich and complex. To me, and to many others, Stevie Wonder is a genius, one of the greatest musicians ever, a twentieth century gift to humankind.

And here was this white lady at McLoone’s playing that Stevie Wonder song. Perfectly. After a few minutes, my entrée came and I shook off the mini-phenomenon I had just heard. I figured this lady was a one-trick pony. Sure, she could play one Stevie song. She probably practiced for twenty years to learn it. It was really no big deal.

Then she did it again. She played another Stevie Wonder song. Perfectly. Then she played another, and another, and another. She played five of them in all, and all of a sudden I could no longer write off this lady’s talent. I had to find out who she was, to meet her, maybe even to sing a song with her. I asked one of my guys, Mike Monks, to go to the piano and ask the lady if I might sing. I was a company president, but there were still some things I was shy about. Mike was a singer himself in his spare time, and a local theater actor. He understood my excitement, and he readily went to the piano to make the inquiry for me. I watched while Mike spoke to the lady at the piano. Then I saw the lady say a few words in response. The cool thing was, she never stopped playing the piano while she was talking. It was as if her fingers were on autopilot, like it was really no big deal. Suddenly she raised one of her hands from the piano and gestured for me to come over. "Who, me", I thought. "Yes, you, dummy", I answered to myself.

I went over to the piano and introduced myself. The lady’s name was Barbara King. She seemed warm and friendly and elegant all at the same time. She had this shock of blond hair and big blue eyes. She had an infectious smile. "So you want to do a song?" she asked.

"Sure, if you don’t mind", I said. "I heard you play some Stevie Wonder before, and I’m a big Stevie Wonder fan. Would you mind playing Lately again?"

Barbara King played Lately, and I sang it. Nervously. Then Barbara played the other four Stevie songs she had just played, and I sang those too. On that night, a friendship was born. In the ensuing years, I spent many nights at Barbara King’s piano bar. I quickly learned that Barbara King was adept at playing the music of many different composers from several musical genres. People would come to the piano requesting tunes by Ira Gershwin or Cole Porter or Nat Cole or Billy Joel, and Barbara would play them all. Perfectly.

Sitting at that piano over the years, I not only got to sing, I got an education. I developed an enormous respect for Barbara King, and for the whole culture of the piano bar. I learned that playing the piano bar really is an art, and that Barbara King is one of that art’s foremost purveyors.

Barbara King is the Queen of the piano bar scene. She’s a twentieth century gift to Monmouth County.

Red Bank, New Jersey

May 17, 2005